UC-NRLF 


$B    ESS    7^"] 


ising  the  Cure 
Colorado^  :: 


Siomas  Crav/fbrd  Galbreatli   I 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/chasingcureincolOOgalbrich 


Chasing  the  Cure  in 
Colorado 


Being  Some  Account  of  the  Author's 
Experiences  in  Looking  for  Health  in 
the  West,  with  a  Few  Observations 
That  Should  be  Helpful  and  Encour- 
aging to  the  Tubercular  Invalid,  Who, 
Either  from  Choice  or  from  Necessity, 
Remains  in  His  Own  Home  to 
"  Chase  the  Cure" 

By 

THOMAS  CRAWFORD  GALBREATH 


With  an  Introductory  Word  by 
M.  BATES  STEPHENS 

Maryland  State  Superintendent  of  Education 


Published  by  the  Authoi 

856  South  Logan  Avenue 

DENVER.  COLO. 

1908 


Copyright,  1907,  by  Thomas  Crawford  Galbteath 


THIRD  EDITION 

BIOLOGY 
UBRARV 


Imprint:  Canon-Harpei  Company 
Denver,  Colo. 


^(13/3 
h?OS 

SIOLOGY 
LIBRARY 


"  Now,  do  take  warning  by  me.  I  am  set  up  by  a  beneficent 
providence  at  the  corner  of  the  road,  to  warn  you  to  flee  from 
the  hebetude  that  is  to  follow.  .  .  .  So  remember  to  keep  well ; 
and  remember  rather  anything  than  not  to  keep  well;  and 
again  I  say,  anything  rather  than  not  to  keep  well." 

"  To  travel  hopefully  is  better  than  to  arlive." 

Egbert  Louis  Stevenson 


ivi668758 


A  Prefatory  Word 


No  apology  will  be  made  if  any  suggestion 
from  me  resulted  in  the  preparation  and  publi- 
cation of  "Chasing  the  Cure  in  Colorado/'  a 
most  interesting  paper  on  the  prevention  of 
tuberculosis,  prepared  by  my  esteemed  friend, 
Thomas  C.  Galbreath.  Four  years  ago,  while 
the  writer  was  eagerly  making  preparation  for 
a  larger  sphere  of  usefulness,  and  his  many 
friends  were  awaiting  his  return  from  the  his- 
toric walls  of  Harvard  to  his  native  state,  it 
became  evident  that  somehow  and  somewhere 
tubercle  bacilli  had  fastened  themselves  upon 
him;  and  since  that  time  we  have  been  privi- 
leged to  witness  one  of  the  gamest  fights 
against  the  white  plague  which  has  yet  been 
waged.  We  confidently  hope  that  he  will 
yet  come  off  victor  and  return  to  Maryland  to 
take  up  his  chosen  field  of  educational  work — 
a  work  for  which  he  is  so  admirably  fitted  by 
temperament  and  training. 


A     PREFATORY     WORD. 

I  have  been  deeply  interested  in  all  that  has 
been  done  to  check  the  ravages  of  this  dreadful 
disease  which  is  responsible  for  one-ninth  of 
all  the  deaths  that  occur. 

We  are  educated  more  quickly  by  events 
than  by  argument.  Here  is  the  case  of  my 
dear  friend  kept  away  from  that  realm  of 
thought  and  activity  for  which  his  education 
and  training  prepared  him — these  four  years, 
because  he  became  a  tubercular  invalid.  When 
I  think  how  he  has  been  kept  from  soaring 
into  those  realms  where  his  ambition  leads 
him,  how  he  has  been  prevented  from  joining 
in  movements  to  uplift  humanity  and  how  he 
has  been  kept  away  from  that  profession 
which  he  could  adorn,  I  realize,  to  some  ex- 
tent at  least,  what  an  enemy  to  society  and  the 
state  is  this  white  plague.  An  object  lesson 
like  this  makes  us  halt  and  think.  It  dawns 
upon  us  that  something  must  be  done  to  pre- 
vent it  from  fastening  its  clutches  upon  our 
honest  manhood  and  noble  womanhood,  and 
the  conviction  is  growing  every  day  that  the 
energies  of  our  people  are  well  employed  when 
devising  efforts  to  prevent  tuberculosis. 


A     PREFATORY    WORD. 

With  a  view  of  stimulating  an  interest  in 
this  subject,  which  was  discussed  in  our  county 
teachers'  institutes  a  year  before  by  represen- 
tatives of  the  Maryland  Tuberculosis  Commis- 
sion, it  occurred  to  me  it  would  be  both  inter- 
esting and  instructive  to  our  teachers  to  have 
Mr.  Galbreath  give  his  experience  in  dealing 
with  this  disease.  He  agreed  to  address  five 
or  six  of  our  county  institutes  in  the  early  part 
of  last  September,  but  before  the  time  came  he 
was  advised  not  to  take  a  trip  East  until  later. 
After  reading  the  address  he  wrote  for  that 
purpose,  it  seemed  to  me  it  had  been  prepared 
with  so  much  care  and  contained  so  many  hints 
looking  to  the  prevention  of  consumption,  I 
made  the  request  that  he  publish  it,  and  in  that 
way  make  it  possible  to  reach  even  more  than 
could  have  been  reached  along  the  lines  of  the 
first  or  original  plan. 

The  address  is  a  strong  plea  for  comfort- 
able homes,  fresh  air,  nourishing  food  and  san- 
itary surroundings,  as  the  best  means  to  pre- 
vent lung  trouble,  as  well  as  a  forceful  argu- 
ment against  the  migration  of  the  invalid  from 
his  own  home. 


A     PREFATORY    WORD. 

The  old  but  true  saying,  "An  ounce  of  pre- 
vention is  worth  a  pound  of  cure/'  is  especially 
significant  in  regard  to  tuberculosis.  We  have 
gotten  away  from  the  belief  that  we  inherit  it, 
and  this  is  a  great  step.  Let  us  invoke  our 
intelligence  to  devise  means  to  prevent  it;  bet- 
ter still,  let  us  employ  the  means  which  intelli- 
gence has  already  provided  or  suggested. 

This  pamphlet  deserves  a  wide  circulation. 
The  subject  is  too  important  not  to  appeal  se- 
riously to  every  one,  and  the  writer  knows  all 
too  much  about  his  theme  not  to  be  in  a  posi- 
tion to  offer  valuable  hints  pertaining  to  it. 
It  has  my  unqualified  approval,  and  I  trust 
some  arrangement  can  be  made  by  school  au- 
thorities to  give  it  an  extensive  circulation 
among  school  teachers  who  are  in  a  position 
to  put  into  effect  its  timely  suggestions. 

M.  Bates  Stephens. 


Chasing  the  Cure  in  Colorado 

If  one  lose  a  jewel  or  a  piece  of  money,  he 
sets  to  work  to  find  it  within  the  area  in  which 
he  feels  reasonably  certain  it  was  lost.  But  if 
he  lose  that  which  is  more  precious  than  either 
jewel  or  money — his  health — he  must  search 
for  it  at  the  sea-shore,  across  the  water,  in  the 
mountains,  on  our  western  plains — anywhere, 
in  fact,  except  in  the  place  where  he  knows  he 
lost  it.  So  wrapped  up  are  we  in  this  idea, 
that  if  for  any  reason  it  is  impossible  for  us  to 
get  away  from  the  locality  where  the  sickness 
came  upon  us,  we  are  discouraged  in  our 
search,  and,  by  that  very  discouragement, 
handicapped  in  our  quest. 

In  certain  cases,  this  idea  of  looking  for 
health  in  the  place  where  you  didn't  lose  it,  is 
a  good  one.  But  in  other  cases,  and  under 
certain  conditions  that  I  shall  later  dwell  upon, 
it  is  wrong — all  wrong.     Such  an  idea  is  the 


lo  CHASING    THE    CURE 

prevailing  one  in  regard  to  the  treatment  for 
tuberculosis,  born  of  the  advice  of  the  vast 
majority  of  medical  men  whose  education  was 
got  in  the  days  when  consumptives  were  kept 
in  closed  rooms,  dosed  with  codliver  oil  and 
imbued  with  the  notion  that  only  by  a  direct 
interposition  of  Providence  could  they  hope  to 
be  cured.  It  is  to  his  physician  the  average 
man  looks  for  enlightenment  upon  matters  of 
health;  and,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that 
members  of  the  Council  on  Medical  Education 
at  its  annual  meeting  last  April  ill  Chicago, 
declared  three-fourths  of  the  graduates  of  our 
medical  schools  unfit  to  practice  medicine,  I  be- 
lieve it  is  the  exception  rather  than  the  rule  to 
find  a  doctor  who  fails  to  give  good  general 
advice  to  a  tubercular  patient.  However, 
from  many  incidents  that  have  come  under  my 
observation  in  the  West,  I  am  of  the  opinion 
that  very  few  of  them  have  reached  the  point 
where  they  can  resist  giving  the  old-time  ad- 
vice, "Go  to  Colorado,  or  to  Asheville,  or  to 
Saranac."  If,  in  my  message  to  you  tonight, 
I  succeed  in  impressing  upon  you  what  my  ex- 
perience and  study  of  the  past  four  years  have 


IN    COLORADO.  ii 

brought  me,  it  will  be :  first,  that  a  consumptive 
can  chase  the  cure. in  his  own  home;  secondly, 
the  fact  that  his  chances  of  ultimate  recovery, 
under  ordinary  conditions,  are  increased  rather 
than  diminished  by  the  very  condition  of  his 
being  at  home ;  and  thirdly,  that  in  this  day  of 
enlightenment  upon  the  subject,  there  is  no  ex^ 
cuse  for  any  one's  contracting  the  disease,  since 
it  is  preventable.  That  you  may  not  question 
my  sincerity  when  you  recall  that  I  am  advis- 
ing what  I  do  not  practice,  I  will  at  the  very 
outset  explain  that  I  went  to  Colorado  for  my 
health  on  a  doctor's  advice,  and  that,  after  two 
years,  being  then  in  pretty  fair  condition,  I 
consulted  two  specialists — one  in  Denver,  the 
other  in  Baltimore — as  to  my  continuing  the 
search  in  the  East.  Their  opinions,  given  in- 
dependently, were  both  to  the  effect  that,  since 
I  had  lived  so  long  in  the  dry  climate  and  high 
altitude  of  the  Rocky  Mountain  Plateau,  such 
a  change  would  very  likely  prove  disastrous. 
I  will  say,  too,  I  am  thankful  to  the  doctor  who 
advised  me  to  go  West,  as  at  that  time,  I  knew 
absolutely  nothing  about  the  treatment  I 
should  follow,  the  magazines,  newspapers,  and 


12  CHASING    THE    CURE 

state  boards  of  health  not  having  so  univer- 
sally taken  up  the  crusade  against  the  white 
plague. 

Coleridge  tells  of  a  certain  German  who  had 
so  much  respect  for  himself  that  every  time  he 
used  the  first  personal  pronoun,  he  made  a  pro- 
found bow  and  lifted  his  hat.  Were  I  to  fol- 
low his  example  tonight,  you  would  each  go 
to  your  home  with  the  idea  of  having  wit- 
nessed an  acrobatic  performance  rather  than 
having  listened  to  a  lecture  on  a  serious  sub- 
ject. For  it  was  /  who  chased  the  cure  which 
I  am  to  tell  you  about.  As  the  law  of  compen- 
sation seems  to  prevail,  however,  I  am  of  the 
hope  that  the  disadvantage  of  the  conspicuous 
place  I  shall  be  forced  to  give  myself  will  be 
more  than  offset  by  the  increased  interest  you 
may  therefore  show  in  my  story,  and  the 
greater  respect  you  may  thereby  feel  for  my 
conclusions.  In  that  hope  I  shall  try  to  be  not 
too  self-conscious  as  I  make  reference  after 
reference  to  myself. 

It  was  just  four  years  ago  the  eighteenth  of 
this  September  that  the  doctor  advised  me  to 
leave  this  part  of  the  country  and  to  give  up 


IN     COLORADO.  13 

my  studies  and  old  habits  of  life  for  a  little 
while.  "You  need  a  complete  change,"  he 
said.  In  answer  to  my  question  as  to  where 
he  thought  I  should  go,  he  replied  as  indif- 
ferently as  he  could,  "O,  Colorado,  or  some 
place  in  the  great  West."  Then  I  realized  for 
the  first  time  that  the  dread  disease  which  I 
had  never  seriously  associated  with  myself, 
had  taken  hold  on  me.  It  seemed  impossible 
that  it  could  be  so.  To  myself  I  kept  repeat- 
ing my  own  name,  associating  with  it  the 
thought  of  consumption,  but  not  naming  it. 
So  hard  was  it  for  me  to  grasp  the  idea  of  my 
being  a  tubercular  invalid,  that  every  little 
while  during  my  first  two  years  in  Colorado, 
I  would  suddenly  be  aroused  from  some  rev- 
ery  by  the  insistent  thought,  "It  can't  be  true; 
I  am  not  I — the  same  who,  only  a  few  months 
ago  was  editing  a  paper  or  playing  tennis  in 
the  little  town  of  Bel  Air."  Then  my  mind 
would  run  swiftly  over  the  events  of  the  year 
before — studying  in  Harvard,  tramping  the 
three  miles  from  Cambridge  to  Boston,  attend- 
ing the  athletic  games,  playing  on  one  of  the 
Leiter  cup  baseball  teams,  working  in  the  gym- 


14  CHASING    THE    CURE 

nasium  three  or  four  hours  per  week,  or  giv- 
ing my  opponents  a  hard  fight  on  the  handball 
court.  And  now,  as  I  thought  on  this  helpless, 
emaciated  person,  sitting  day  after  day  in  a 
reclining  chair,  unable  to  do  so  little  as  to  walk 
a  short  city  block  without  utter  exhaustion 
and  high  fever,  I  would  say  again,  "It  can't — 
it  can't  be  true."  Then,  all  my  past  would 
unfold  before  me — three  years  of  the  miscel- 
laneous duties  which  fell  to  my  lot  as  super- 
intendent of  the  Harford  County  (Maryland) 
schools,  ranging  all  the  way  from  conducting 
a  teachers'  institute  of  five  days  to  auditing 
and  paying  a  bill  for  repairs  to  a  rusty  stove; 
two  years  as  principal  of  the  preparatory  de- 
partment at  my  old  college,  when  I  also  acted 
as  athletic  instructor  and  coach  of  the  football 
team;  two  years  as  teacher  in  a  one-room 
country  school,  when,  as  an  outside  diversion, 
I  pitched  on  a  baseball  team;  four  years  as  a 
college  student  when  I  engaged  in  all  those 
outside  amusements  that  every  healthy  boy 
should  enjoy,  playing  a  good  part  of  the  time 
on  both  the  baseball  and  the  football  teams; 
and  finally — finally  in  retrospection  but  first  in 


IN     COLORADO.  15 

actual  experience — fifteen  years  of  vigorous, 
hearty  boyhood  and  babyhood  spent  on  a  farm 
and  under  the  influence  of  a  home  with  as 
wholesome  associations  as  ever  fell  to  the  lot 
of  any  child.  Is  it  strange  then,  that  with  the 
memory  of  such  a  past — a  past  in  which  I  had 
led  a  healthy  existence  under  most  healthful 
surroundings,  giving  heed  to  the  rules  of  exer- 
cise and  the  laws  of  hygiene — is  it  strange  that 
I  in  my  new  condition  of  helpless  invalidism, 
should  involuntarily  exclaim,  "It  can't  be  true 
— it  can't  be  trueT 

To  mortal  eye,  the  logic  of  events  is  as  yet 
undiscernible.  Two  men  sow  their  seed  in 
adjoining  fields  at  the  same  time  under  similar 
conditions,  giving  it  as  nearly  as  possible  the 
same  attention;  one  harvests  a  rich  crop,  the 
other  a  poor  one.  Or,  it  may  be,  one  is  neg- 
lectful, failing  to  prepare  well  the  ground, 
and  giving  but  poor  attention  after  the  seed  is 
sown,  while  the  other  has  shown  care  in  every 
move  from  seedtime  to  harvest.  Yet  the  in- 
different one  reaps  bountifully,  the  other  but 
poorly.  At  one  time  an  Augustinian  religion 
accounted  for  all  this  by  attributing  it  to  a  per- 


i6  CHASING    THE    CURE 

sonal  God,  who,  for  reasons  we  might  never 
know,  hurled  one  stroke  of  lightning  here,  an- 
other there,  picked  up  the  waters  of  the  ocean 
to  spill  in  torrents  on  wicked  cities,  sent 
plagues  and  pestilences  wherever  and  when- 
ever by  a  mere  word  he  so  directed,  and  caused 
destructive  earthquakes  and  volcanoes  accord- 
ing to  a  wisdom  it  was  sacrilegious  for  us  to 
try  to  fathom.  To  acquiesce  in  such  a  relig- 
ion would  be  to  sit  with  folded  hands  and  un- 
seeing eyes,  mistaking  our  ignorance  for  the 
will  of  God,  deeming  any  attempt  at  explana- 
tion as  out  of  harmony  with  the  teachings  of 
the  Christ  who  said,  "Thy  will  be  done." 

In  my  own  case,  I  shall  probably  never  come 
to  any  very  satisfactory  conclusion  as  to  just 
why  I  was  taken  down  with  tuberculosis.  As 
far  as  I  may  ever  get  is  likely  embraced  in  the 
explanation  that  for  twelve  years  I  had  been 
working  somewhat  harder  than  I  should  have 
done,  consuming  so  much  vitality  that  when  a 
malarial  fever  germ  set  to  work  on  me  in  Au- 
gust, four  years  ago,  the  white  corpuscles  of 
my  blood  were  not  able  to  destroy  him.  I 
gradually  lost  all  power  of  resistance,  and,  in 


IN     COLORADO.  17 

this  condition,  I  was  most  susceptible  to  any 
disease.  Then  there  found  lodgment  in  my 
lung,  the  tubercle  bacilli.  In  my  weakened 
state,  they  got  in  their  deadly  work  so  rapidly 
that  before  a  second  physician  was  called  in 
who  told  me  the  true  nature  of  my  disease,  I 
had  lost  over  twenty  pounds  and  was  unable  to 
leave  my  bed.  Such  an  explanation  as  this, 
leaves,  I  know,  a  very  great  deal  to  be  ex- 
plained, which,  until  both  medical  science  and 
the  laws  of  psychology  are  better  understood, 
will  continue  to  remain  a  mystery.  But  I  am 
of  the  faith  that  intelligent  and  persistent  man 
in  his  attempts  to  solve  the  unchanging  laws  of 
God^ — laws  that  in  the  mathematical  world 
have  already  become  so  well  understood  that 
the  time  of  an  eclipse  hundreds  of  years  hence 
can  be  figured  out  to  the  fraction  of  a  second; 
laws  that  in  the  medical  world  have  almost 
entirely  wiped  out  the  yellow  fever  plague 
from  our  seaboard  cities,  mitigated  the 
horrors  of  smallpox  and  conquered  to  a  great 
extent  the  ravages  of  diphtheria — I  say  I  am 
of  the  faith  that  man  in  his  efforts  to  under- 
stand himself  and  his  relation  to  his  environ- 


i8  CHASING     THE     CURE 

ment,  will  so  far  succeed  as  to  know  why  one 
person,  apparently  in  good  health,  succumbs  to 
a  given  disease,  while  another,  seemingly  with 
much  less  power  of  resistance,  throws  it  off. 

In  our  present  state  of  half-formed  knowl- 
edge, all  we  can  do  is  to  look  at  the  fact  of 
its  being  true,  and  learn  therefrom  the  lesson 
of  precaution.  This  means  that  while  you  of 
strong  and  well  bodies  have  the  advantage 
over  your  weaker  brother,  yet  you  are  not  im- 
mune, and  the  subject  of  preventing  and  cur- 
ing tuberculosis  should  be  of  vital  interest  to 
you  as  well  as  to  the  sickly  one.  The  cold, 
unrelenting  fact  gathered  from  statistics  is, 
that  at  the  present  rate,  one  death  out  of  every 
nine  in  the  United  States  is  caused  by  con- 
sumption. The  nineteenth  century  was  one 
of  many  terrible  wars,  the  battle-field  death- 
roll  aggregating  the  awful  sum  of  fourteen 
million  souls.  Yet  while  this  terrible  slaughter 
was  going  on,  in  the  very  same  countries 
thirty  million  people  died  from  consumption 
— two  and  one-seventh  times  as  many  as  were 
killed  on  the  field  of  battle.    When  a  case  of 


IN     COLORADO.  19 

scarlet  fever  or  diphtheria  breaks  out  in  the 
neighborhood,  we  close  our  schools  and  quar- 
antine the  patient.  Yet  the  number  of  deaths 
from  tubercular  trouble  in  this  country  is 
equal  to  the  combined  mortality  from  scarlet 
fever,  diphtheria,  smallpox,  cancer,  typhoid 
fever,  grippe  and  appendicitis.  Between  the 
ages  of  twenty  and  fifty,  one  death  in  every 
four  is  caused  by  this  same  white  plague.  I 
am  glad  to  say  that  in  an  audience  such  as  I 
have  before  me  tonight,  this  average  does  not 
strictly  apply,  as  these  figures  are  gathered 
from  our  whole  nation  in  which  the  city  popu- 
lation and  the  negro  element  have  much  to 
do  with  such  an  astounding  proportion. 
Nevertheless,  you  will  hardly  accuse  me  of 
either  stretching  the  truth  or  striving  after 
sensationalism  when  I  make  the  statement 
that,  unless  you  profit  by  the  education  that 
is  now  going  on  toward  the  prevention  of  the 
disease,  there  isn't  a  family  represented  in 
this  gathering  but  can  reasonably  expect 
within  the  next  two  generations  to  sacrifice 
at  least  one  victim  to  the  white  scourge. 


20  CHASING    THE    CURE 

It  was  only  five  days  after  I  learned  the 
true  nature  of  the  sickness  which  had  taken 
hold  on  me,  that,  accompanied  by  my  mother, 
I  set  out  for  the  land  that  was  to  bring  me 
health.  To  bring  me  health !  Yes,  there  was 
no  doubt  about  it.  No  matter  how  much  I 
suffered  from  the  thought  that  the  bottom  had 
dropped  out  of  all  my  former  years  of  plan- 
ning, I  never  for  one  moment  doubted  that  I 
was  to  be  well — and  that  within  a  few  months. 
What  magic  there  was  in  that  name — Colo- 
rado! To  my  mind  it  was  truly  Eldorado. 
Ponce  de  Leon,  himself,  in  his  belief  that  he 
had  found  the  fountain  of  perpetual  youth, 
was  no  more  certain  than  was  I  that  in  Colo- 
rado I  should  soon  find  renewed  health. 
Three  months — the  period  first  set  by  my  doc- 
tor— seemed  a  long  time  to  wait,  but  knowing 
I  should  be  completely  cured  by  that  time,  I 
managed  to  content  myself.  For  some  reason 
I  wasn't  a  cure  when  that  time  had  elapsed, 
but  being  considerably  improved,  I  submitted 
hopefully  to  the  doctor's  suggestion  that  two 
or  three  months  more  would  bring  me  round 
all  right.     I  did  become  much  stronger,  exer- 


IN     COLORADO.  21 

cising  some  little  every  day  under  the  doctor's 
advice  and  encouragement.  The  result  of 
such  exercise  was  that  before  six  months  were 
up  I  frequently  carried  an  afternoon  tempera- 
ture of  a  hundred  and  one  degrees — some- 
times more — and  was  in  worse  condition  than 
when  I  first  arrived  in  Denver.  It  was  then 
I  consulted  a  second  physician,  who,  on  giving 
me  a  thorough  examination,  pronounced  my 
condition  as  still  hopeful,  but  serious ,  and 
advised  me  to  give  up  every  form  of  exercise. 
*'Sit  down,"  he  said,  "from  morning  till  night 
and  don't  move  a  muscle  unless  you  are  com- 
pelled to.  Force  yourself  to  eat  plenty  of 
nourishing  food — rare  meats,  milk,  if  it  agrees 
with  you,  raw  eggs — keep  in  the  open  air  and 
don't  worry.  You  are  to  work  your  own 
cure.  I  can't  do  anything  for  you  unless  a 
complication  of  some  sort  sets  in — indigestion, 
bad  cold,  pleurisy,  hemorrhage.  Otherwise, 
you  don't  need  to  come  to  see  me  again  for 
two  or  three  months.     So  sit  down." 

Under  this  advice  I  began  truly  to  chase  the 
cure.  Heretofore  I  had  been  visiting  my  doc- 
tor twice  a  week,  undergoing  the  excitement 


22  CHASING    THE    CURE 

incident  to  such  visits,  walking  a  mile  a  day, 
sometimes  two  miles,  and  forcing  myself  in 
many  ways  to  do  the  very  things  I  was  now 
advised  against  doing.  For  a  year  I  sat 
down,  and  was  rewarded  after  the  first  three 
months  or  so  by  a  decrease  in  temperature,  in- 
dicating that  I  was  finding  what  I  had  come 
after.  At  the  end  of  ten  months,  all  my  fever 
had  gone,  and  when  the  year  was  up  I  began 
taking  daily  walks,  commencing  with  a  half 
block  and  slowly  increasing  the  distance  as  my 
strength  would  permit.  After  another  six 
months  (completing  my  second  year  in  Colo- 
rado), an  examination  disclosed  no  further 
involvement,  there  being  no  signs  of  moisture, 
and  scars  having  formed  over  the  affected 
parts.  Then  I  came  East  for  a  little  visit,  at 
which  time  I  consulted  Doctor  Thayer  of  the 
Johns  Hopkins  in  regard  to  my  staying  in 
this  part  of  the  country,  with  what  result  you 
already  know.  The  next  nine  months  I  spent 
in  my  old  quarters,  four  miles  from  the  heart 
of  Denver,  following  the  approved  methods 
of  doing  but  little,  eating  as  heartily  of  nour- 
ishing food  as  I  could,  and  living  out  of  doors. 


IN     COLORADO.  23 

I  would  improve  for  a  time  in  strength,  then 
a  cold  or  an  attack  of  pleurisy,  and,  in  the 
summer,  hay-fever,  would  set  me  back.  But, 
on  the  whole,  I  showed  considerable  improve- 
ment. Becoming  restless  of  this  slow  process 
and  thinking  a  complete  change  under  favor- 
able climatic  conditions  might  hasten  my  cure, 
in  July  of  last  year  (1906)  I  went  on  the 
Fort  Hall  Indian  Reservation  in  the  highlands 
of  south-eastern  Idaho,  to  spend  the  summer 
with  an  old  college  friend  who  was  looking 
for  health  from  the  same  trouble  as  I.  Tak- 
ing an  Indian  with  us  to  do  the  heavy  work, 
we  camped  high  up  the  mountain-side  where 
we  might  breathe  the  air  of  the  fir  and  the 
pine.  If  for  us  there  were  any  efficacy  in  get- 
ting close  to  nature,  we  would  there  find  it, 
for  the  nearest  habitation  of  human  being  was 
an  Indian  camp  seven  miles  below,  while  the 
nearest  white  man  lived  more  than  twenty 
miles  away.  A  cold,  rainy  spell  set  in,  proper 
food  was  hard  to  get,  the  Indian  became  rest- 
less, so  after  a  month  we  broke  camp  and  re- 
turned to  the  Agency  headquarters — not,  how- 
ever, before  I  had  contracted  a  throat  trouble 


24  CHASING     THE     CURE 

which  stayed  with  me  over  six  months.  Dur- 
ing my  other  three  months  among  the  Indians, 
I  fished  a  little  in  the  tributaries  of  the  Snake 
River,  went  gunning  for  ducks  or  hunting  for 
grouse,  and  rode  horseback.  I  thought,  from 
every  indication,  I  was  getting  into  good  shape 
to  take  up  some  regular  employment  in  the  fall. 
But  I  suddenly  went  to  pieces,  and  when  my 
Denver  doctor  examined  me  in  November,  he 
pronounced  me  a  backslider  and  again  advised 
me  to  sit  down,  the  which  I've  been  doing  off 
and  on  ever  since. 

The  attitudes  of  mind  through  which  some 
long-time  consumptives  proceed,  are  portrayed 
by  Beatrice  Harraden  in  her  Ships  that  Pass 
in  the  Night,  when  she  makes  the  Disagree- 
able Man  say  to  a  new  invalid  just  arrived  at 
the  sanitarium :  **Why  make  a  fuss?  Things 
arrange  themselves,  and  eventually  we  adjust 
ourselves  to  the  new  arrangement.  A  great 
deal  of  caring  and  grieving,  phase  one;  still 
more  caring  and  grieving,  phase  two;  less  car- 
ing and  grieving,  phase  three;  no  further  feel- 
ing whatsoever,  phase  four."  She  rightly 
tailed  him  the  Disagreeable    Man.     But   how 


IN     COLORADO.  25 

many  of  us,  I  wonder,  under  similar  conditions 
would  not  become  disagreeable  men  and  accept 
this  philosophy  through  sheer  cowardice — the 
cowardice  that  shuns  caring  about  what  comes 
when  we  know  that  the  more  we  allow  our- 
selves to  care,  the  greater  will  be  our  disap- 
pointment at  its  non-realization. 

Colorado  is  most  glad  to  welcome  the  con- 
tents of  the  purse  the  invalid  brings  with  him, 
but  she  would  greatly  prefer  that  the  invalid 
should  not  accompany  the  purse.  Because  of 
the  prevalency  of  consumption,  the  heart  of 
the  average  Denverite  has  become  hardened 
toward  the  tubercular  patient  (^'lungers"  they 
are  everywhere  called),  and  human  sympathy 
is  conspicuously  absent.  I  have  never  seen 
any  statistics  on  the  subject,  but  from  my  ob- 
servation I  am  of  the  opinion  that  if  every  res- 
ident who  had  come  to  Denver  for  his  own 
health  or  for  the  health  of  some  member  of 
his  family,  were  removed,  the  city  would  lose 
easily  one-half  its  population.  Can  it  be  that, 
as  in  the  electrical  world,  like  repels  like,  so 
in  the  world  of  humanity  one  who  has  re- 
covered   from    an  affliction    would    therefore 


26  CHASING    THE    CURE 

prefer  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  an  unfortu- 
nate in  a  similar  condition?  The  nearest  I 
can  come  to  any  reason  for  such  an  attitude  of 
inhospitality  toward  the  consumptive  is  that 
a  good  many  of  them  are  careless  in  their 
habits,  thereby  rendering  themselves  both  dis- 
gusting and  dangerous  to  those  about  them. 
That  such  an  attitude  prevails,  however,  is 
attested  by  many  facts,  the  first  of  which  came 
to  me  within  fifteen  hours  after  my  arrival. 
It  ^as  the  following  morning,  and  my  mother 
had  left  the  boarding-house  for  the  purpose  of 
getting  our  trunks  from  the  station.  The 
landlady  came  into  the  room  and  told  me  I 
must  get  out,  as  her  boarders  objected  to  my 
being  there.  When,  on  my  mother's  return, 
I  told  her  of  the  interview,  the  fact  of  our 
being  outcasts  did  not  worry  her  half  so  much 
as  the  thought  of  the  woman's  inconsiderate- 
ness  in  breaking  the  news  to  me  and  in  such  an 
unfeeling  manner.  All  that  afternoon  my 
mother's  heart  grew  heavier  and  heavier,  as, 
ringing  door-bell  after  door-bell,  she  was  in- 
formed that  no  invalids  could  be  accom- 
modated.     It  was  with  a  cheerful  face,  how- 


IN     COLORADO.  2^ 

ever,  that  on  her  return  at  supper-time,  she 
related  to  me  the  story  of  her  fruitless  search. 
As  the  next  day  was  Sunday,  she  rested  from 
her  labors;  but  on  Monday  morning  she  was 
out  again,  only  to  return  at  noon  with  the  same 
unsatisfactory  and  non-cheering  report.  When 
she  came  back  from  her  afternoon  search,  it 
was  a  look  of  triumph  that  she  wore.  So  the 
next  morning  we  said  good-bye  to  boarding- 
house  number  one.  Perhaps  I  should  here 
mention,  apropos  of  my  assertion  concerning 
the  Denverite's  fondness  for  your  purse  rather 
than  your  person,  that  my  first  landlord  visited 
me  as  I  lay  in  bed  that  Monday  afternoon, 
and,  after  an  acquaintance  of  fifteen  minutes, 
wondered  if  I  could  oblige  him  by  lending  him 
ten  dollars. 

I  shall  not  tire  you  by  relating  my  exper- 
iences at  my  seven  boarding-houses,  five  of 
which  I  had  tried  in  my  first  ten  months  and 
found  wanting — or  rather  not  wanting  me. 
The  most  aggravated  case  of  inhumanity  and 
unnatural  feeling  I  ever  witnessed  was  found 
in  one  of  them  which  was  being  run  by  a  young 
lady  from  New  York  City,  who,  seven  years 


28  CHASING    THE     CURE 

before,  had  been  forced  to  leave  her  home  and 
come  West  for  her  health.  She  was  not  well, 
but  she  had  determined  on  trying  to  make  her 
own  way  by  running  a  boarding-house.  She 
had  started  on  her  undertaking,  when  her 
mother  came  to  her  from  their  old  home. 
Then  trouble  began,  and  every  morning  as  we 
sat  on  the  front  porch,  we  could  hear  the 
shrill  tones  of  the  old  lady  quarreling  over 
some  trivial  affair,  usually  ending  with  an  ac- 
cusation against  the  daughter  of  having  dis- 
graced the  family  by  getting  consumption. 
You  can,  perhaps,  imagine  what  consideration 
an  outsider  would  get  from  such  a  termagant 
as  that. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  subterfuges  to 
which  some  of  the  landladies  resort  in  order 
to  get  ahead  of  the  prejudices  of  their  boarders 
against  invalids,  the  following  came  to  me  in 
boarding-house  number  two.  As  I  entered 
the  dining-room  for  the  first  time,  I  was  in- 
troduced by  the  lady  to  the  assembled  boarders 
as  the  gentleman  whom  she  had  told  them 
about — the  one  who  had  come  to  Denver  for 
rheumatism.     I  was  completely  taken  by  sur- 


IN     COLORADO.  29 

prise,  but  upon  reflecting  that  I  was  on 
crutches  and  that  rheumatism  wasn't  tabooed 
in  that  country  as  a  disease,  I  saw  the  point, 
and  respected  the  sagacity  of  that  woman 
rather  than  her  veracity.  It  was  surprising 
the  number  of  diseases  I  found  represented  in 
that  house.  But  it  was  more  surprising  that 
everyone  coughed — dyspeptics,  rheumatics, 
nervous  wrecks,  heart  patients,  kidney  pa- 
tients, ear  patients,  Keely  cure  patients — all 
coughed.  For  fear  of  being  detected  as  a 
consumptive,  no  one  exercised  any  of  the  sim- 
plest sanitary  precautions,  so  I  voluntarily  left 
that  hotbed  of  disease,  giving  the  landlady  ten 
days'  notice,  and  getting  in  return  quarter  por- 
tions of  food  at  the  table  and  no  change  of 
linen  in  our  rooms. 

A  friend  of  mine  who  had  been  required  in 
December  to  leave  his  home  and  all  his  friends, 
arrived  in  a  little  town  famous  in  the  West 
as  a  health  resort,  three  days  before  Christmas. 
In  reply  to  an  *'ad"  in  a  local  paper,  he  pre- 
sented himself  at  a  house  where  room  and 
board  might  be  secured.  He  was  favorably 
impressed  on  being  met  at  the  door  by  the  lady 


30  CHASING     THE     CURE 

of  the  house,  an  elderly  woman  wearing  a 
badge  that  showed  her  to  be  a  member  of  one 
of  the  biggest  church  auxiliary  organizations 
in  the  country.  He  took  her  to  be  a  mother 
(afterward  finding  that  she  was),  she  evi- 
dently professed  to  believe  in  Him  who  had 
said  something  about  feeding  His  lambs  and 
giving  a  cup  of  cold  water.  And  here  it  was 
the  Christmas  season,  time  of  good-will  toward 
men.  But  she  couldn't  accommodate  him. 
Yes,  she  had  a  vacant  room  and  she  would  be 
glad  to  talk  to  him  after  Christmas.  Finally 
she  agreed  to  take  him,  provided  he  would  ab- 
sent himself  from  the  Christmas  dinner,  as  she 
was  going  to  have  several  friends  present  at 
that  meal.  In  the  last  four  years  I  have  seen  a 
good  deal  of  this  sort  of  cant  that  wears  a 
badge  and  parades  itself  under  the  name  of 
Christianity.  And  my  respect  has  increased  a 
hundredfold  for  the  man  who  uses  occasionally 
the  kind  of  speech  that  a  printer  puts  in  dashes, 
but  who  gives  his  fellowman  a  lift  whenever  he 
can. 

In  the  business  world,  the  consumptive  isn't 
wanted  except  as  he  buys  and  gives  cash  in 


IN     COLORADO.  31 

return.  Want  "ads"  for  help  frequently 
specify,  "No  invalids  need  apply."  Not  only 
is  living  costly — dying  is  expensive.  Because 
you  take  the  liberty  of  shuffling  off  this  mortal 
coil  in  a  boarding-house,  the  landlord  can,  ac- 
cording to  the  law,  collect  twenty-five  dollars 
for  giving  you  that  privilege.  Some  years 
ago  there  was  introduced  on  the  floor  of  the 
legislature,  a  bill  requiring  every  "lunger"  to 
wear  a  bell  round  his  neck.  I  don't  know  why 
it  failed  of  passage — for  the  reason,  perhaps, 
that  the  clatter  would  be  so  great,  the  street- 
car gongs  and  automobile  honks  could  not  be 
heard  above  the  din. 

The  physicians  of  Denver  are  divided 
into  two  classes  as  regards  their  attitude 
toward  the  immigrating  invalid — those  who 
rejoice  in  his  coming  and  glory  in  his 
condition  as  long  as  his  money  holds 
out;  and  the  other  class,  composed  of  con- 
scientious and  able  men,  who,  sympathizing 
with  him,  advise  him  in  his  own  interest  as  to 
what  course  he  should  follow,  and  assist  him 
in  his  efforts  at  keeping  down  expenses.  It 
was  through  such  a  physician  I  was  finally 


32  CHASING    THE     CURE 

directed  to  a  good  boarding-house,  which,  as 
he  prophesied  at  the  time,  has  been  the  greatest 
factor  in  my  improved  condition.  But  the 
city  is  full  of  quacks  and  quackery,  and  I  have 
seen  cases  where,  within  a  space  of  two 
months,  they  have  done  such  damage  to  a 
promising  patient  at  an  extravagant  cost  of 
two  hundred  dollars,  as  made  his  ultimate 
recovery  impossible.  If  you  know  of  any  one 
who  is  thinking  of  going  West  for  his  health, 
give  him  this  piece  of  good  advice;  tell  him 
not  to  put  himself  in  the  hands  of  a  physician 
until  he  knows  him  to  be  a  reliable  one. 
Apropos  of  the  exorbitant  charges  that  are 
made,  the  story  is  told  of  a  consumptive  who 
lay  dying  in  one  of  the  famous  sanitariums. 
His  last  request  was  that  his  physician  should 
stand  at  one  side  of  his  bed  and  the  manager 
of  the  institution  at  the  other.  This  had  been 
carried  out.  **Now,"  he  whispered,  "I  can 
die  happy — like  Christ,  between  two  thieves." 
From  the  fact  of  my  dwelling  upon  these 
disagreeable  conditions,  I  would  not  have  you 
conclude  that  either  I  am  a  pessimist  and 
therefore  blind  to  the  brighter  side  of  life  in 


IN     COLORADO.  33 

Denver,  or  that  Denver  is  altogether  inhospit- 
able and  uninhabitable  to  the  consumptive. 
Neither  is  true.  But  the  business  interests 
of  the  city  have  seen  to  it  that  all 
the  beautiful  features  should  be  so  mag- 
nified and  advertised  throughout  the  East, 
that  I  feel  it  a  duty  to  lay  before  you 
some  of  the  unpleasant  facts  which  are  pretty 
sure  to  greet  the  invalid  on  his  arrival.  For 
eight  months,  the  period  when  my  mind  and 
body  were  both  most  susceptible  to  treatment, 
I  was  bumping  up  against  just  such  unpleasant 
and  unhealthful  conditions.  And,  since  the 
result  of  the  first  half  year  or  so  usually  deter- 
mines whether  a  person  is  ultimately  to  get 
well  or  not,  it  is  especially  important  that  this 
period  be  spent  under  the  most  favorable  con- 
ditions. 

Denver  has  an  extraordinary  climate.  The 
truth  about  it  is  good  enough  without  resort- 
ing to  such  exaggerations  as  the  boosters  con- 
tinually indulge  in.  From  June  until  the  fol- 
lowing February  there  isn't  sufficient  ground 
for  any  difference  of  opinion  on  the  weather 
to  enable  even  the  cavilling,  five-cent,  red-let- 


34  CHASING     THE     CURE 

tered  newspapers  of  the  city  to  get  into  a  dis- 
pute. Through  summer,  fall  and  winter,  as  a 
rule,  the  air  is  dry,  the  sun  shines,  the  days, 
though  hot  sometimes,  are  not  oppressive,  and 
when  night  comes,  one  lies  down  to  refreshing 
sleep  in  an  atmosphere  so  cool  that  a  light 
blanket  is  always  needed.  The  mile-high  al- 
titude, in  combination  with  the  lack  of  humid- 
ity in  the  air,  serves  as  a  tonic,  invigorating 
the  newcomer  to  a  too  strenuous  activity.  Far 
away  through  the  clear  air  you  look  to  the 
range  of  Rockies  at  the  west,  your  vision  easily 
carrying  a  hundred  miles  in  every  direction. 
Distances  are  thus  rendered  so  deceptive  that 
a  forty-mile  stretch  across  the  country,  unin- 
terrupted by  forests  or  abrupt  hills,  appears  to 
be  but  three  or  four.  The  new  arrival  ex- 
presses surprise  at  this,  and  invariably,  I  be- 
lieve, he  is  told  the  story  of  a  tenderfoot,  who, 
the  morning  after  he  had  reached  Denver, 
arose  an  hour  before  breakfast,  and,  having  in 
him  the  longing  to  run  a  race,  looked  across 
to  the  foot-hills  and  remarked  that  he  thought 
he  would  take  a  little  walk.  Now,  the  foot- 
hills, although  they  look  less  than  two  miles 


IN     COLORADO.  35 

away,  are,  in  fact,  fifteen.  The  young  man 
sauntered  slowly  along.  Some  minutes 
passed — a  quarter  of  an  hour.  It  was  a  mat- 
ter of  some  little  surprise  that  the  hills  didn't 
seem  any  nearer  than  when  he  had  started,  but 
still  they  were  only  a  little  way  beyond. 
Twenty  minutes  grew  to  a  half  hour;  the  half 
hour  lengthened  to  forty-five  minutes,  and  still 
he  hadn't  reached  the  hills.  He  was  plucky, 
was  this  young  man.  At  all  events,  it 
couldn't  be  much  farther.  Soon  the  hour  was 
up.  No  use  returning  now — ^breakfast  would 
be  over  anyway.  He  became  desperate,  and 
in  his  desperation  vowed  he  would  reach  those 
mysterious  hills  if  it  took  till  sun-down.  Then 
he  came  to  an  irrigating  ditch,  three  feet  or 
so  across,  through  which  the  water  was  swiftly 
flowing  to  a  near-by  ranch.  Here  he  halted 
from  his  desperate  speed,  glanced  carefully 
across  to  the  other  side.  Suddenly  he  took 
off  his  hat,  throwing  it  to  the  ground — then 
his  shoes,  his  coat,  his  collar.  As  he  emerged 
from  his  shirt,  an  astonished  ranchman  halted 
and  greeted  him  with : 


36  CHASING    THE    CURE 

"Good  mornin/  pardner.  Sort  o'  out  o*  the 
way  place  to  be  takin'  a  bath,  ain't  it?" 

The  young  man  was  in  no  humor  for 
trifling.  "You  'tend  to  your  business  an'  I'll 
'tend  to  mine." 

"Whew!"  ejaculated  the  stranger.  "No 
harm  meant." 

"Well,  then,"  condescended  the  tenderfoot, 
"I'll  tell  you.  I'm  on  my  way  to  them  hills, 
an'  I'm  obliged  to  swim  this  river.  O,  I  know 
it  don't  look  more'n  a  couple  o'  feet  across,  but 
appearances  are  deceitful  in  this  country,  an' 
I  ain't  a  goin'  to  be  fooled  again."  And  with 
that  the  ranchman  left  him  still  making  prep- 
arations for  his  swim  across  the  three-foot 
ditch. 

The  spring-time  is  glorious  in  Denver  only 
as  one's  imagination  makes  it  so.  Snow  and 
rain  and  hail  and  wind  take  out  their  license 
then,  and  we  accept  good  weather  in  a  spirit 
of  thankfulness.  The  most  disagreeable 
feature — and  it  comes  at  almost  any  season — 
is  the  terrific  wind-storm,  that,  carrying  dust 
and  weeds  and  paper  before  it,  so  fills  the  air 
with  debris  that  sometimes  for  hours  it  is  im- 


IN     COLORADO.  37 

possible  to  see  farther  than  a  block  in  any 
direction.  The  house-wives  soak  newspapers, 
laying  them  along  the  window-sills  and  door- 
cracks.  Even  then,  the  fine  dust  works  its  way 
into  the  house,  depositing  itself  everywhere, 
even  in  the  bureau-drawers. 

The  other  advantages,  in  addition  to  climate, 
that  a  health-seeker  finds  in  Colorado  and  the 
West,  are  a  change  of  scenery  and  the  educa- 
tion that  comes  from  associating  with  others  in 
the  same  business  with  himself.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  a  change  in  surroundings — provided 
it  is  not  bought  at  too  great  cost — has  a 
good  mind-effect  upon  any  one.  And  a  man 
learns  the  business  of  chasing  the  cure  in  much 
the  same  way  he  learns  other  things — ^by 
watching  others  do  it.  These  benefits  are  not 
to  be  set  aside  as  of  little  consequence.  They 
are  very  real.  Could  they  be  secured  without 
consequent  disadvantages,  in  every  case  it 
would  be  wise  for  the  invalid  to  leave  his  home 
in  search  of  them.  But  you  must  consider 
well  all  I  have  said  about  the  conditions  which 
the  stranger-invalid  will  face,  and  the  ill  ef- 
fects of  an  intense  longing  for  the  old  home 


38  CHASING    THE     CURE 

and  the  old  associations.  If  his  money  has 
come  hard,  there  is  concern  over  its  not  hold- 
ing out.  The  high  altitude  tends  to  heart 
trouble  and  nervousness;  and,  while  associa- 
tion with  others  following  the  right  treatment 
is  helpful,  there  is  the  heart-sickness  and  dis- 
couragement that  comes  from  seeing  a  com- 
panion slow^ly  decline  until  he  becomes  hope- 
less. A  telegram  is  sent  East.  In  a  few  days 
a  relative  comes — and  then  the  black  wagon. 
The  eastern  physician  who  knows  that  his  pa-' 
tient  has  a  spirit  to  reckon  with  as  well  as  a 
body,  should  take  these  things  more  into  ac- 
count before  he  says,  "Go  West." 

But,  if  I  have  given  you  some  good  reasons 
for  not  rushing  the  sick  one  off  to  Colorado,  I 
can  give  you  a  better  reason  for  keeping  him 
at  home^ — and  that  is,  under  average  conditions 
he  stands  a  better  chance  there  of  getting  well 
if  he  will  follow  the  same  treatment  pursued  in 
the  resort  countries.  While  only  a  few  years 
ago  climate  was  placed  first  in  importance  in 
working  the  cure  from  tuberculosis,  it  now,  ac- 
cording to  the  best  authorities,  stands  fourth. 
The  first  two  considerations  are  fresh  air  and 


IN    COLORADO.  39 

plenty  of  nourishing  food.  Ranking  third  is 
absolute  rest  until  the  patient  is  well  beyond  the 
fever  stage,  after  which  comes  climate.  A 
hopeful  spirit  and  a  mind  free  from  care  are 
the  other  conditions.  You  can  easily  see  that 
the  majority  of  these  things  can  be  secured  at 
less  cost  and  under  more  agreeable  conditions 
in  one's  own  home  community.  I  am  reliably 
informed  by  a  Yale  student  that  Professor 
Fisher  of  that  institution,  on  contracting 
tuberculosis,  preferred  to  remain  in  New 
Haven,  building  a  tent  and  following  the  ap- 
proved course  as  to  fresh  air  and  diet,  until  he 
became  a  well  man.  I  know  of  a  case  in 
which  the  patient — a  young  man — after  spend- 
ing six  months  in  California  and  Colorado, 
and  growing  gradually  worse,  was  advised  by 
two  specialists  that  his  condition  was  hopeless 
and  that  he  might  as  well  return  to  his  own 
home  in  northwest  Pennsylvania  to  be  with  his 
people.  He  was  so  weak  that  an  attendant 
had  to  accompany  him  on  the  trip.  However, 
under  the  changed  conditions,  he  immediately 
began  to  improve,  and  after  six  months,  the 
last  time  I  heard  from  him,  his  cough  had  left 


40  CHASING    THE     CURE 

him,  and  his  gain  of  thirty  pounds  in  weight 
encouraged  him  to  believe  he  would  soon  be 
entirely  well. 

The  one  thing  that  is  secured  at  an  advan- 
tage in  Colorado  is  the  air.  There  the  pleas- 
ant weather  invites  you  to  be  out  of  doors 
rather  than  shut  yourself  up  in  a  closed  room. 
However,  because  the  thermometer  does  drop 
below  zero  at  times,  because  it  does  snow 
sometimes  as  early  as  October,  and  because  it 
does  rain,  snow,  hail  and  blow  frequently  dur- 
ing the  spring  months,  one  must  there  make 
the  same  preparation  for  the  weather  that  you 
of  this  climate  would  have  to  make.  It  is  not 
unusual  to  see  an  invalid  sitting  on  a  covered 
porch,  overcoated,  furred  and  blanketed,  with 
hot  bricks  or  a  hot  water-bag  at  his  feet,  while 
snow  is  swirling  and  drifting  over  him,  and 
the  thermometer  not  far  above  zero.  At 
night,  he  sleeps  on  a  porch,  in  a  tent,  or  in  a 
room  with  every  window  open;  and  when  he 
reaches  for  the  glass  of  water  by  his  side,  he 
is  frequently  denied  the  drink  he  wants,  be- 
cause it  is  frozen  hard.  Last  fall  my  obliging 
landlady  permitted  me  to  build  a  ten-by-ten 


IN     COLORADO.  41 

room  in  one  corner  of  an  old,  unused  stable  in 
the  back  yard.  Over  the  open  cracks  between 
the  gaping  boards,  I  nailed  strips,  and  the  in- 
side I  lined,  first,  with  several  thicknesses  of 
newspapers,  and  then  with  heavy  building- 
paper.  The  hanging  on  hinges  of  the  two 
large  windows  permits  of  the  entire  window- 
space  being  opened  to  admit  air.  Everything 
is  thrown  open,  but  in  case  a  storm 
comes  up  during  the  night,  a  pulley 
arrangement  enables  me  to  close  the 
windows  without  leaving  my  bed.  It 
is  never  necessary  to  shut  the  two  doors  to 
keep  out  the  snow  and  rain,  since  they  are  cut 
within  the  original  stable  which  thus  serves  as 
a  storm-shield.  An  arrangement  of  this  kind, 
a  tent  or  a  sheltered  porch,  provides  as  sat- 
isfactory a  chasing  outfit  in  this  part  of  the 
country  as  in  Colorado.  The  one  thing  to  be 
particularly  guarded  against  is  dressing  or  un- 
dressing in  the  cold — in  fact,  one  should  never 
allow  himself  to  feel  cold.  In  winter,  the 
dressing-room  should  be  closed  and  warmed 
before  the  patient  leaves  his  bed.  This  is  done 
in  the  sanitariums,  but  in  my  long  experience 


42  CHASING    THE     CURE 

with  boarding-houses  I  never  found  anything 
of  the  sort  until  I  came  to  my  present  quarters, 
where  the  landlady  is  both  knowing  and  con- 
siderate. 

It  is,  after  all,  through  precautions  taken  in 
the  home  that  this  disease  is  finally  to  be  wiped 
out.  Sanitariums,  hospitals,  tent  colonies,  can 
do  no  more  than  cure  and  educate — it  is  in  the 
home  that  intelligence  must  be  exercised  in  the 
way  of  providing  fresh  air,  nourishing  food 
and  clean  sanitary  surroundings,  and  discour- 
aging that  tendency  to  excess,  which,  either  in 
the  form  of  over-work  or  over-indulgence  in 
less  excusable  things,  is  so  frequently  respon- 
sible for  the  condition  that  develops  into  con- 
sumption. Intelligence  directed  toward  the 
accomplishment  of  these  ends  in  the  home, 
will,  I  believe,  in  a  very  few  generations,  make 
tuberctilosis  as  infrequent  a  disease  as  is  yel- 
low fever.  Medical  aids  may  be  introduced 
— at  present  the  principle  of  vaccination 
through  the  opsonic  treatment  is  holding  out 
some  hope — ^but  everything  is  as  yet  in  the  ex- 
perimental stage.  It  is  due  simply  to  the  care 
exercised  along  these  lines,  and  to  the  city's 


IN     COLORADO.  43 

making  it  possible  for  the  poor  to  take  advan- 
tage of  the  knowledge  so  far  gained,  that  in 
New  York  the  death-rate  from  consumption 
has  fallen  forty  per  cent  in  fifteen  years.  And 
in  Boston  even  a  better  record  has  been  made 
— a  fifty  per  cent  decrease  in  seventeen  years. 
Drugs  and  specifics,  patent  medicines.  X-ray 
and  inhalation  treatments,  lymphs  and  serums 
— some  have  proved  themselves  positively 
harmful,  while  not  one  has  accomplished  suffi- 
cient results  to  give  us  any  faith  in  it.  As  il- 
lustrative of  this  fact — and  of  the  further  fact 
that  medicines  are  often  given  credit  for  work- 
ing the  cure  that  Nature  makes — I  must  yield 
to  the  temptation  to  tell  a  true  story,  although 
perhaps  a  somewhat  indelicate  one.  A  young 
Chinaman,  apparently  in  the  last  stages  of  con- 
sumption, consulted  a  medical  man  in  Shang- 
hai who  advised  him  as  to  the  proper  course  to 
pursue.  Not  seeing  anything  of  the  invalid 
for  two  years,  the  doctor  supposed  he  was 
dead.  One  day,  however,  the  two  met  on  the 
street,  the  Chinaman  apparently  well.  He  ex- 
plained to  the  doctor  that  he  had  been  cured 
by  the  prescription  of  a  Chinese  doctor,  as  fol- 


44  CHASING     THE     CURE 

lows:  large  daily  doses  of  a  broth  made  by- 
boiling  the  entrails  of  a  freshly  killed  chicken 
in  a  sock  taken  directly  off  the  foot. 

If  I  were  making  an  appeal  to  the  patriotic 
man  of  wealth  who  was  sincerely  striving  to 
find  that  form  of  philanthropy  in  which  he 
should  engage  in  order  to  get  the  biggest  mon- 
etary returns,  I  would  dwell  upon  the  fact  that 
tuberculosis  disables  from  one-fourth  to  one- 
third  of  our  population  at  its  productive  age 
— ^between  the  ages  of  fifteen  and  forty-five — 
making  its  victims  economic  hindrances  in- 
stead of  uplifts  in  the  social  order.  I  would 
emphasize  the  further  fact  that  the  annual 
commercial  loss  to  the  nation,  as  computed  by 
eminent  experts,  is  three  hundred  and  thirty 
million  dollars,  approximately  the  same  that 
occurred  in  San  Francisco  through  fire  and 
earthquake — a  disaster  so  great  that  the  whole 
world  took  notice  and  responded  generously. 
And  I  would  show  how  a  great  proportion  of 
this  loss  could  be  averted.  It  is  possible,  how- 
ever, for  only  a  few  of  us  to  do  the  big  things 
the  philanthropists  could  do.  But  to  every  one 
of  us  it  is  possible,  and  should  be  felt  as  an  ob- 


IN    COLORADO.  45 

ligation,  that  we  do  our  part  toward  making 
our  home  a  preventita,vmm.  The  disease  can 
be  prevented.  Even  the  theory  that  it  is  in- 
herited has  been  abandoned.  A  case  that 
comes  to  mind  illustrates  both  these  facts. 
Ten  years  ago,  a  friend  of  mine  who  was  en- 
gaged in  teaching,  on  applying  for  life  insur- 
ance in  one  of  the  big  New  York  companies, 
was  refused  on  the  ground  of  his  family  his- 
tory. Both  of  his  parents  and  his  only 
brother  had  died  of  consumption,  and  he  him- 
self was  far  from  strong.  On  being  refused 
by  a  second  company  he  seriously  contem- 
plated abandoning  teaching  for  some  work  in 
the  open  air.  He  did  not  take  this  step,  how- 
ever, but  instead,  conscientiously  practised  all 
the  hygienic  preventives  possible.  When 
not  in  the  class-room,  he  was  out  of  doors, 
sometimes  studying,  sometimes  taking  light 
and  systematic  exercise.  He  was  careful,  but 
not  cranky,  of  his  diet.  When  night  came, 
the  four  windows  in  his  room  were  kept  open. 
Now  he  is  in  his  fortieth  year,  well  past  the 
most  dangerous  periods,  and  his  health  is 
good.     From  all  appearances  he  was  as  cer- 


46  CHASING    THE    CURE 

tain  a  candidate  for  the  disease  as  I  ever  knew. 
But,  in  spite  of  such  a  predisposition  to  it,  he 
has,  in  a  sedentary  occupation,  practised  the 
prevention  that  is  worth  more  than  all  the 
cures. 

The  astounding  figure  I  have  named  as  rep- 
resenting the  annual  commercial  loss  to  the 
nation  through  the  white  plague,  seldom  makes 
much  impression  outside  of  impersonal  bodies 
such  as  city  councils  and  state  legislatures. 
However  much  in  our  moments  of  pessimism 
we  are  prone  to  cry  out  that  this  is  a  com- 
mercial age,  and  that  money  is  king,  it  is  to 
our  own  credit  as  well  as  to  that  of  the  human 
race  at  large  that  in  our  saner  moments  we  are 
forced  to  acknowledge  our  mistake  and  to 
agree  to  the  old,  old  truth — 'tis  love  that 
makes  the  world  go  round.  A  third  of  a  bil- 
lion dollars  lost  annually!  You  will  remem- 
ber that  perhaps.  But  you  act — promptly  and 
with  all  the  means  at  your  command — when 
the  unwelcome  guest  invades  your  home  and 
strikes  down  one  dear  to  you.  If,  when  the 
fight  is  done,  you  are  financially  able,  you  then 
help  on  in  the  crusade  by  building  a  cottage  at 


IN    COLORADO.  47 

some  resort,  donating  a  tent  to  some  colony, 
contributing  funds  to  some  sanitarium.  No 
economic  loss  appeals  to  you  to  move  you 
from  your  beaten  path,  but  when  you  see  a 
loved  one's  cheek  take  to  itself  the  unnatural 
tint  of  hectic  flush,  your  heart  and  hand  go 
out  in  generous  help.  The  Rockefeller  mil- 
lions flow  freely  toward  educational  needs, 
while  Henry  Phipps  in  the  E^st  and  Lawrence 
Phipps  in  the  West,  through  sanitariums,  medi- 
cal institutes  and  improved  tenement  buildings, 
direct  their  great  wealth  toward  the  extermi- 
nation of  tuberculosis.  This  difference  in  the 
direction  of  their  philanthropy  can  all  be  at- 
tributed, no  doubt,  to  the  fact  that  the  tuber- 
cle bacillus  visited  the  home  of  the  Phipps,  but 
has  never  yet  brought  sorrow  to  the  Rocke- 
fellers. 

And  these  figures  do  not  take  into  account 
the  greater  loss,  that  which  affects  society 
through  the  adversities  that  consumption 
works  to  the  individual — the  disappointed 
hopes,  the  unfulfilled  and  even  untried  ambi- 
tions, the  apparent  uselessness  of  all  the  years 
of  previous  sacrifice  and  preparation,  the  long- 


48  CHASING    THE    CURE 

time  deprivation  of  those  daily  pleasures  which 
others  all  about  him  are  enjoying,  the  torture 
to  a  sensitive  soul  of  the  pharisaic  attitude 
of  so  many  who  "pass  by  on  the  other  side," 
the  anguish  of  mind  as  he  realizes  the  suffer- 
ing and  disappointment  he  is  causing  others, 
the  indifference  or  even  cynicism  he  so  fre- 
quently comes  to  feel  toward  the  things  that 
should  really  count  in  life,  the  degeneracy  of 
the  finer  instincts  that  often  follows  the  drawn- 
out  fight,  the  embitterment  of  heart  toward 
our  social  institutions  that  permit  a  matter 
of  mere  money  to  determine  the  question  be- 
tween a  life  of  health  and  a  useless  existence 
of  a  few  years — the  fewer  the  better,  he  feels. 
These  are  some  of  the  items  that  must  be 
charged  to  the  white  plague,  many  of  them  per- 
taining most  closely  to  every  victim.  As  to 
whether  or  not  so  severe  and  protracted  a 
chastening  develops  any  new  beauties  of  char- 
acter, I  am  inclined  to  believe  with  Thackeray 
that  we — that  is,  our  real  selves — alter  very 
little,  and  "Circumstance  only  brings  out  the 
latent  defect  or  quality"  instead  of  creating  it. 
Heroes  there  are  in  plenty  in  the  great  army 


IN     COLORADO.  49 

of  consumptive  fighters,  but  they  would  have 
been  heroes  anywhere.  John  Paul  Jones  was 
as  much  the  hero  fighting  the  white  plague 
through  the  years  preceding  his  death  as  he 
had  been  when  he  lashed  his  vessel  to  the  Se- 
rapis.  But  heroism  was  easier  when  the  cannon 
boomed  about  him,  and,  in  the  excitement  of 
victory,  he  forgot  all  danger — easier  than 
when,  alone,  he  fought  the  invisible  foe  that 
was  eating  his  life  away.  To  live  is  some- 
times harder  than  to  die. 

"One  dared  to  die.     In  a  swift  moment's 

space, 
Fell  in  war's  forefront,  laughter  on  his  face. 
Bronze  tells  his  fame  in  many  a  market-place. 

"Another    dared    to  live.      The    long    years 

through 
Felt  his  slow  heart's  blood  ooze  like  crimson 

dew. 
For   duty's   sake,    and    smiled.     And   no   one 

knew." 

But,   the  greatest   heroes,   as   in   war,   are 
those  who  remain  at  home  and  wait  the  issue. 


50  CHASING    THE    CURE 

They  sacrifice,  and  wait.  They  hope,  inspire 
with  hope,  and  still  wait.  From  afar  they 
see  the  warrior  in  the  fight,  and  their  dire 
imaginings  behold  the  enemy  far  more  cruel 
than  he  is  in  fact.  In  every  loved  one's  heart 
is  built  a  shrine  where  hourly  sacrifice  is  made. 
No  act  is  done  without  some  thought  of  him, 
no  prayer  but  petitions  his  return  in  health. 
The  months  grow  into  years,  yet  still  they 
wait,  and  hope,  inspire  with  hope — and  wait. 

Yes,  the  heroes  are  the  ones  who  stay  be- 
hind. The  tiny  sister  writes  and  puts  her 
note  beside  the  chimney-piece:  "Dear  Santa 
Claus,  If  you  don't  mind,  I'd  rather  have  the 
money  than  the  doll  I  asked  you  for  last  week. 
I  can  send  the  money  to  my  brother  Jack, 
who's  sick,  and  that'll  make  us  both  so  happy." 
His  sister  Mary  who  had  always  hoped  to  take 
a  college  course,  sends  him  word  the  day  she 
graduates  from  the  high-school  that  she  had 
long  ago  changed  her  mind  and  was  now  so 
glad  to  take  a  half-year  course  in  ste- 
nography. She  thinks  it  will  be  such  fun 
to  make  those  wriggly  marks  and  then  de- 
cipher them.     But  she  didn't  say  how  many 


IN     COLORADO.  51 

nights  she  had  cried  herself  to  sleep  as  she 
realized  that  she  must  give  up  her  most  cher- 
ished hope  in  order  to  let  him  fight  his  fight. 
His  brothers  make  and  save  and  sacrifice — 
for  him.  His  father  writes  that  the  old  barn 
still  will  do — the  barn  that  was  condemned 
five  years  ago  and  would  have  been  replaced 
with  money  he  has  spent  in  search  of  health. 
Could  he  but  see  the  records  in  the  court- 
house, he  would  find  the  highest  proof  a 
father's  love  could  give — the  old  farm  mort- 
gaged to  half  its  worth — for  him. 

And  over  all  a  mother's  heroism  casts  its 
halo.  The  occasional  pleasures  of  former 
years  are  now  foregone  that  every  little  coin 
may  be  saved  for  him.  The  arduous  duties 
that,  in  years  gone  by,  the  hired  help  had  done, 
must  now  be  borne  alone.  Far  into  the  night 
she  labors,  remaking  clothes  the  older  ones 
have  outgrown.  Week  in,  week  out,  she  toils, 
buoyed  up  by  hope.  When  Sunday  comes, 
she  hangs  upon  the  preacher's  words,  "He 
chasteneth  whom  He  loves,"  "Whate'er  ye 
ask,  believing,  that  ye  shall  receive."  "O 
God !"  she  cries,  "I  do  believe ;  help  Thou  mine 


52  CHASING     THE     CURE 

unbelief!"  The  service  done,  she  walks 
among  the  crowd,  a  living  hope,  a  prayer  yet 
unfulfilled. 

These  are  but  a  few  of  the  acts  of  heroism 
consumption  creates  in  almost  every  commu- 
nity in  our  land.  But,  since  it  does  not  create 
the  heroes,  the  cost  is  too  great.  It  is  for  each 
one  of  you  to  help  stop  the  payment  of  such  a 
price.  Live  the  life  of  prevention,  and  within 
a  few  generations,  the  white  plague  will  have 
ceased  collecting  its  awful  tax. 


Addendum 


In  going  to  press  for  the  third  edition,  it 
has  seemed  wise  to  seize  the  opportunity  of 
adding  several  pages  by  way  of  reply  to  a 
number  of  letters  that  have  come  from  inter- 
ested readers  of  my  booklet  in  all  sections  of 
the  Middle  West  and  East.  It  is  not  with  a 
sense  of  unmixed  pleasure  I  have  read  these 
evidences  of  appreciation  of  my  message;  for, 
behind  each  note,  I  felt  the  presence  of  the 
writer's  loved  one  whose  illness  accounted  for 
the  personal  interest  my  words  of  hope  in- 
spired. 

The  request,  often  accompanying  such  let- 
ters, that  I  give  some  detailed  information 
as  to  what  the  sick  one  should  do  toward 
finding  health  in  his  own  home,  could  not, 
for  obvious  reasons,  be  fully  complied  with. 
Even  now  I  can  not  be  so  specific  as  many 
would  like.  Some  of  the  advice  that  I  here 
give  can  be  secured,  doubtless,  through  cir- 
culars issued  by  the  board  of  health  of  the 


54  ADDENDUM. 

reader's  own  state.  And  much  that  I  can't 
give  can  be  secured  only  through  a  specialist 
on  tuberculosis.  Nothing  that  I  can  say  will 
make  a  physician  any  the  less  imperative.  The 
best  one  you  can  get  is  never  too  good. 

The  patient  cannot  too  soon  come  to  un- 
derstand that  getting  well  is  now  his  business. 
Nothing  else,  where  it  is  at  all  possible,  must 
be  allowed  to  interfere  with  it.  One  corre- 
spondent writes  that  two  months  ago  a  doctor 
told  her  she  had  an  incipient  case  of  tuber- 
culosis. Her  people  know  nothing  of  it,  and 
she  hates  to  tell  them,  thinking  she  may  be- 
come well  without  their  having  learned  of  her 
condition.  She  is  unjust  both  to  herself  and 
to  her  people.  She  is  undoubtedly  a  menace 
to  all  who  live  in  the  house  with  her,  as  her 
attempts  to  keep  them  in  ignorance  make  it 
impossible  for  her  to  exercise  such  care  as 
is  absolutely  necessary  for  their  safety.  And, 
besides  being  in  continual  danger  of  reinfect- 
ing herself,  her  attitude  makes  it  impossible 
for  her  to  observe  such  habits  of  life  as  would, 
in  all  probability,  restore  her  to  complete 
health   within  a   limited  time.     Work,   play, 


ADDENDUM.  55 

society — everything  that  calls  upon  the  sys- 
tem for  an  expenditure  of  the  vitality  which 
is  necessary  for  the  successful  fighting  of 
the  disease   should  be  foregone. 

This  means  that,  for  some  time,  you  (the 
patient)  may  be  compelled  to  sit  quietly  in  a 
comfortable  chair  and  watch  the  world  speed 
by.  There  are  two  ways  of  doing  this.  You 
may  grumble  at  your  fate,  and  so  color  every- 
thing about  you  with  discontent.  On  the  other 
hand,  you  may  bend  your  seeming  misfortune 
into  a  welcome  opportunity  to  gather  up  the 
loose  ends  of  a  hitherto  too  busy  life.  There 
are  many  books  you  have  always  .wanted  to 
find  the  time  to  read ;  now  you  can  "gloriously 
forget"  yourself  and  "plunge  soul-forward, 
headlong"  into  the  very  choicest  bits  of  liter- 
ature preserved  unto  this  very  hour  for  you. 
You  have  wished  you  might  pursue  with  some 
system  a  course  of  study  along  a  certain  line. 
Now,  if  you  do  not  care  to  enroll  in  a  cor- 
respondence school,  you  can  independently 
follow,  with  much  profit,  a  plan  of  reading 
as  laid  down  by  some  encyclopaedia.  As,  day 
after  day,   you  watch  the  plant  and  animal 


56  ADDENDUM. 

life  about  you,  they  take  on  a  new  interest 
and  you  find  yourself  absorbed  every  little 
while  in  gaining  at  first  hand  that  information 
which  one  usually  gets — if  he  gets  it  at  all — 
only  through  books.  Night  after  night  you 
see  the  constellations  take  their  places  in  the 
heavens.  Perhaps  you  never  studied  astron- 
omy, but  you  soon  learn  to  differentiate  the 
moving  stars  from  those  that  never  change 
their  relative  positions.  After  perhaps  a 
month  has  gone  by,  you  have  observed  the 
fact  that  new  stellar  bodies  are  coming  into 
the  eastern  horizon  while  your  old  friends 
have  disappeared  in  the  west.  You  soon  come 
to  feel  a  close  comradeship  with  the  northern 
stars  that  never  desert  you.  And,  that  you 
may  have  a  speaking  acquaintance,  you  get 
a  book  on  astronomy  from  some  library,  when 
a  vast  realm  of  new  thought  is  opened  to  you. 
Tliere  are  many  other  things.  You  may 
sew  a  little — try  out  your  talent  at  drawing. 
If  you  have  a  faculty  for  invention,  you  can, 
for  your  own  amusement  at  least,  devise  some 
little  plans  for  making  easier  the  drudgery 
about  the  house.     These  things  I  suggest  as 


ADDENDUM.  57 

only  incidentals.  The  principal  thing  is  that 
you  do  not  allow  yourself  to  dwell  on  your 
own  condition.  However,  you  must  conduct 
your  manner  of  living  as  though  you  thought 
of  nothing  else. 

During  the  day  you  live  in  God's  out-of- 
doors.  As  nearly  as  possible  you  must  con- 
tinue this  at  night.  If  you  can  do  no  better, 
you  will  have  to  sleep  in  the  house  with  the 
windows  of  your  room  thrown  open.  I  can- 
not here  enumerate  the  reasons  why  it  would 
be  better,  however,  to  build  a  separate  shack 
in  the  yard.  Make  it  about  eight  feet  by  ten, 
lengthwise  to  the  south,  in  which  side  you 
build  a  door  and  a  window.  Build  another 
door,  or  large  window,  in  the  west,  another 
in  the  east.  In  a  damp  climate,  I  would  build 
a  weather-tight  shell  around  this  shack,  about 
four  feet  longer  each  way,  setting  both  build- 
ings on  posts  eighteen  inches  above  the 
ground.  The  bottom  parts  of  the  east,  south 
and  west  sides  of  the  outer  building,  I  would 
hang  on  hinges  in  order  that  they  might  be 
thrown  open  on  clear  days.  Hang  the  win- 
dows on  hinges,  and  arrange  a  pulley  device 


58  ADDENDUM. 

so  that  in  case  of  storm  any  opening  may  be 
closed  without  your  leaving  your  bed.  It 
must  be  possible  easily  to  heat  the  shack  at 
morning  and  at  night.  Perhaps,  to  this  end, 
it  will  be  necessary  to  line  it  with  heavy 
paper.  Before  rising  in  the  morning  and  go- 
ing to  bed  at  night,  the  building  should  be 
thoroughly  warmed  and  dried.  A  hot-water 
bbttle  or  heated  bricks  should  be  placed  in  the 
bed  several  hours  before  you  retire.  On  re- 
moving your  clothes  at  night,  place  them  on  a 
coat-hanger  suspended  from  the  ceiling  direct- 
ly over  the  stove.  By  placing  the  bed  along 
the  north  side  of  the  shack,  you  will  avoid  a 
direct  draft  sweeping  over  you.  If  not  accus- 
tomed to  fresh  air,  you  may  find  it  necessary 
in  the  beginning  to  go  gradually  as  to  open 
windows  and  the  out-of-door  life.  Soon,  how- 
ever, you  will  find  yourself  delighting  in  what 
has  become  a  necessity,  and  you  would  not 
change  your  close-to-nature  quarters  for  a  lux- 
uriously furnished  apartment. 

In  your  conversation,  it  is  best  to  dwell  on 
other  things  than  yourself  and  your  own  con- 
dition.   The  most  of  us  are  so  constructed  that 


ADDENDUM.  59 

we  aggravate  our  egotism  and  our  sympathies 
for  ourselves  when  we  hear  our  own  condition 
under  discussion.  There  might  be  some  ex- 
cuse for  a  person's  being  sorry  for  himself  if 
there  were  not  so  very  many  other  people — 
good  people — in  the  world  who  will  relieve 
him  of  that  burden  by  being  sorry  for  him. 
The  best  tonic  for  a  heavy  heart  is  a  cheerful 
tongue.  At  first  you  may  not  believe  yourself, 
but  if  you  persevere  in  the  deception,  soon  you 
will  come  to  agree  that  you  are  happy. 

"Talk  happiness :  the  world  is  sad  enough 
Without  your  woes.    No  path  is  wholly  rough. 
Look  for  the  places  that  are  smooth  and  clear. 
And  speak  of  those  to  rest  the  weary  ear 
Of  earth,  so  hurt  by  one  continuous  strain 
Of  human  discontent  and  pain. 

"Talk  health:  the  dreary,  never-changing  tale 
Of  mortal  maladies  is  worn  and  stale. 
You  cannot  charm,  or  interest,  or  please 
By  harping  on  that  minor  chord,  disease. 
Say  you  are  well,  or  all  is  well  with  you. 
And  God  shall  hear  your  words  and  make  them 
true.'* 


6o  ADDENDUM. 

Before  this  disease  came  upon  you,  you  pro- 
fessed a  religion  or  a  philosophy  of  life  that 
spelled  cheerfulness.  Was  it  only  a  fair-day  re- 
ligion? Can  it  not  meet  its  Calvary  with 
trust?  Is  there  no  tomorrow  of  the  ages  when 
that  character,  developed  through  the  trials  of 
today,  will  mean  a  blessing  richer  to  you  for 
the  buffeting?  The  sculptor  breaks  and 
mars  the  block  of  fair  marble.  That  is  only 
the  apparent  failure  which  must  precede  the 
figure  of  the  angel. 

An  invalid,  after  many  years  of  searching 
for  health,  lay  dying  in  his  weather-beaten 
tent.  His  violent  coughing  had  just  set  in 
motion  some  delicate  chimes  that  hung  above 
him.  As  they  gave  forth  their  sweet  music, 
he  whispered,  '*It  takes — a  combination — of 
cough — and  tottering  tent — to  make  them 
ring.'^ 

We  cannot  all  attain  unto  that  spirit.  But 
we  should  try. 

This  ends  our  drawing-room  talk.  For  the 
laboratory  conversation,  address  a  card  to  the 
secretary  of  your  state  board  of  health,  re- 
questing circulars  on  this  subject. 


"  Life's  attar  of  roses  is  as  rare  as  it  is  precious,  and  it 
takes  the  sunshine  of  many  summers  and  the  braving  of 
many  thorns  to  produce  a  single  drop.  But  that  drop  when 
produced  is  worth  all  that  it  costs,  and  the  perfume  of  it 
will  last  forever." 

Ellen  Thoeneyceoft  Fowlee 


o-n 


RETURN  TO  the  circulation  desk  of  any 
University  of  California  Library 
or  to  the 
NORTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 
Bldg.  400,  Richmond  Field  Station 
University  of  California 
Richmond,  CA  94804-4698 

ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS 

•  2-month  loans  may  be  renewed  by  calling 
(510)642-6753 

•  1-year  loans  may  be  recharged  by  bringing 
books  to  NRLF 

•  Renewals  and  recharges  may  be  made  4 
days  prior  to  due  date. 

DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 
SENT  ON  ILL 


FEB   1  9   1^^^ 


U.  C.  BERKELEY 


SENT  ON  ILL 


OCT  1  3  Z006 

U.C.BERKELEY 


12,000(11/95) 


ko 


*  t  i-'r' ' '"  ^-^  '^ 


r-^ 


I 


